


For Him

by Lilsciencequeen



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Feels, The Framework Universe (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-21
Updated: 2017-06-21
Packaged: 2018-11-17 00:50:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11264574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilsciencequeen/pseuds/Lilsciencequeen
Summary: What it Lincoln was alive in the Framework and was working for the Resistance?





	For Him

**Author's Note:**

  * For [amazingjemma](https://archiveofourown.org/users/amazingjemma/gifts).



> I got this prompt ages ago with Lincoln being alive in the Framework but have only just finished it after so much redrafting. Hope you enjoy and thanks for reading!

“Lincoln,” Daisy whispered when she saw him, standing there with Mack, looking through some files. She went to take a step forward but a hand on her arm from Jemma stopped her. Daisy looked down at it, frowning.

It had been the first time anyone of them had seen Lincoln since entering the Framework. They had known he was alive, having faked his death after the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. but that had been all they knew.

“Daisy,” Jemma’s voice is soft, gentle, reassuring. “It’s not our… It’s not the Lincoln that you know. That you loved. He has no memories of you.”

“Jemma,” Daisy pleaded, turning to face her friend. “I know but… but I need to see him. To talk to him.”

“I understand Daisy, but I don’t want you to get hurt. Not after all…”

Daisy’s face turned hard. “You think I can’t handle this?” She pulled her arm away and stormed off. Jemma set to go after her but Fitz stopped her, shaking his head.

“Let her go,” Fitz whispered. He knew that Jemma wanted to go, to apologise for what she had said, to explain what she had meant. Fitz knew that Jemma was only looking out for her friend, but Daisy wouldn’t listen, not in a situation like this.

“But…” Jemma tried to argue but Fitz shook his head again and Jemma gave up, knowing that Daisy could be stubborn at times and there would be no changing her mind with this. She just didn’t want to see her friend get hurt.

“I just…” Jemma began and Fitz nodded in understanding, and brushed a loose strand of hair out of her face, before pulling her in close and placing a kiss on her forehead.

“I just hope she’s going to be okay,” Jemma whispered.

“She will be,” Fitz reassured, “Now c’mon, show me this coding. I don’t want to spend a second longer in this hell.”

“I know,” Jemma whispered as a sudden wave of dizziness overtook her. She hadn’t been feeling well, dizzy spells plaguing her and her chest tight. It had been like that the last number of days, and it was starting to worry Fitz and Daisy. They were scared that AIDA was behind it, or the Framework was rejecting Jemma due to her already being dead in this world. Whatever was happening, it was scaring her, it was scaring them all. They didn’t know how much longer Jemma had in this world, and if she did die in this world, she would be dead in their world.

“Jemma?” Fitz asked, concern laced heavily in his voice. “Jemma, what’s wrong?”

She closed her eyes, burying her head in her hands, trying not to throw up. “I’m… I’m fine.” She tried to lift her head but found she couldn’t, the world spinning far too much, hurting her head, her eyes and twisting her insides into painful knots. She stumbled slightly on her feet until Fitz was able to guide her to a chair, helping guide her into it.

“Thank you,” she whispered, curled up on it, resting her head on the arm as Fitz accepted a blanket from someone and threw it over her, tucking her in. “But you have to hurry… I don’t think…”

“No,” he refused. “No, don’t say that.” He stroked her cheek with the back of his hand, and he could feel just how cold her skin was. She was doing badly, and she knew it, he knew it, they both did. She was running out of time. “We’re nearly done anyway, we’ll finish it today, and you and Daisy can leave, we can leave and then you can rescue us. We can take that trip to the Seychelles.”

She smiled at him. “You were always the more hopeful one.”

“We’re not losing, not now, not after so much. Promise me, Jemma, promise me.”

“I promise,” her voice was a whisper and she squeezed her eyes closed, and it was obvious just how much pain she was in.

“Is she okay?” a voice asked. Lincoln. He had knelt down beside Jemma, looking at her.

It took Fitz a moment to answer. “She’s… we don’t know.”

Lincoln frowned, looking at her. Thankfully, he never questioned the fact that Fitz was there. Mace must have explained everything, that he _wasn’t_ the Doctor, Hydra’s most notorious. “Is it to do with the fact that this world isn’t real?”

“You know?” Fitz asked, taking his eyes of Jemma once to briefly look at the Inhuman.

Lincoln nodded, and sighed. “Mace told me, as did Coulson. That in your world, I’m dead but Hydra are destroyed.”

“Then why are you helping us, if the destruction of this world means your death?”

Lincoln scoffed. “I died once saving the world, I can do it again. Not many people can say that can they? Now I need a first aid kit. Something, anything.”

“That’s not going to help.”

It was Daisy’s voice. She was standing behind them, looking down at Jemma, curled up on the sofa, eyes closed and tears of pain streaming down her face. “We need to get her out of here. Now.”

“No!” Fitz’s reply was one of shock. “You know it’s temperamental, that I’m not finished it yet. I’m not risking it. Not yet.”

“You’re… you’re gonna have to.” It was Jemma who spoke up, her voice barely audible, with pain laced in it. Her breathing was heavy. She tried to lift her head, open her eyes and look at him, but she couldn’t and she let herself sink back down onto the sofa. “You’re going to…” She couldn’t finish her sentence, a cry of pain escaping her.

Fitz stroked her hair, trying to reassure her. “I can’t,” he whispered, voice close to breaking. “I can’t hurt you, what if it goes wrong?”

Daisy stepped forward, sitting on the ground beside Fitz and took one of Jemma’s hands in her own. “Fitz, you _have_ to. Staying in here, it’s killing her.”

“I can’t lose her,” Fitz all but whined, turning to look at Daisy for a second. “I can’t.”

“You can do it,” Daisy reassured. “I know you can. Jemma knows you can. But you have to do it now, she doesn’t have long left.”

Slowly Fitz nodded and then turned back to Jemma, who was only half conscious at this point, still crying from the pain. He whispered reassurances to her as Daisy walked across the room, and lifted the headpiece from the desk, and slid a laptop under her arm. She walked as quickly as she could back to the sofa, Lincoln stepping back to allow them to work. She passed Fitz the headpiece, and opened up the laptop, placing it on her legs as she sat cross-legged on the ground. He slid the headpiece on Jemma and accepted the laptop from Daisy, and began typing, calibrating the headpiece that would allow Jemma to escape from the Framework.

In the minutes that it was working, Jemma’s form stilled, her breath no longer erratic.

“Is she out?” Daisy asked, scared to know the answer, hoping that they weren’t too late.

Fitz let out a long breath, and ran his hands through his hair. “Yeah, yeah. She’s out. She’s safe.” He stared at the screen, as if still in shock, as if he couldn’t believe that she was safe.

Daisy couldn’t help the smile that crossed her face. “So, we can get out of this hell?”

Fitz smiled and nodded. “We can get out of this hell.”

***

It took a number of hours to ensure that the programming was working fine, that everyone would come out alive and well. Lincoln had stayed back, knowing that his work was done and that soon this world would be destroyed.

And he wasn’t sure how he felt about it, sure it meant that he would die but it meant that this world, which was just a simulation, a computer program, would be gone and no more Inhumans, no one else, would be hunted, killed for being different.

“Lincoln,” a voice called and looked over, seeing the other Inhuman, Daisy, walking over to him. There was a smile on her face but tears clinging to her lashes. “I want to say thank you. For everything. For all the help.”

He shrugged. “What else was I supposed to do?” He paused, looking her up and down. “I suppose this is goodbye, isn’t it?”

Daisy nodded, biting her lip.

“Daisy, I’m not the man you loved. I’m not him. But if there’s one thing I’ve learnt from my time with you, you’re amazing Daisy. And Lincoln, the one in your reality, he was lucky to have you. And I know you miss him, you still blame yourself…”

“How?” she asked, her voice breaking, tears making tracks down her face. “How can you tell?”

“I know something about guilt, you think you’re hiding it but I can see it. But it wasn’t your fault Daisy, he chose to do that, _I_ would do the same. He died protecting you. He would want you to be happy. To not mourn him but to remember him as who he was. Can you promise me that? Can you do that for me? If not, can you do it for him? He would want you to be happy. Please Daisy.”

Overcome with emotion, tears now flowing freely, Daisy nods and Lincoln smiles. “It was amazing to get to know you, the real you. But you, Fitz, you have to leave. This world, I don’t know when its gonna end, but you need to leave.”

“I can’t lose you, not again.” Daisy pleads, and she can hear just how pathetic her voice is. “Please.”

Lincoln takes a step closer to her, and takes her hand in his own, giving it a squeeze to reassure her. “I’m just coding Daisy, I’m not him. But if I’m half the man he is, if we share anything, it’s the desire for you to be safe. Please, Daisy just… stay safe and enjoy life. Remember him but don’t mourn him. He wouldn’t want that. And he loved you. Never forget that. He loved you.”

And with that, he dropped her hand, walking off, using his sleeve to wipe away a tear of his own.

Daisy crumped to the floor. She knew he wasn’t real, but losing him again, finding him again, it was all too much. “I’m ready,” she spoke, her voice barely more than a whisper, and Fitz, standing in the corner stepped forward, and passed her the headpiece on. Her and Fitz were the only one remaining in the Framework, everyone else having left it safely. Daisy would be the next one to leave, then finally Fitz. Then, all her, Jemma and the team of agents they had managed to bring with them would be able to find Coulson and the others and bring them home, finally bringing an end to this hell.

Daisy looked at the headpiece, then slid it on, closing her eyes.

The world went dark.


End file.
